★★★★★ | Nautical Fiction | Digital + Audio | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
The Aubrey-Maturin seafaring novels by Patrick O’Brian are so dear to me. I’ve read the complete 20-volume set three times, and I’m slowly working my way through a fourth reading, which aficionados call a circumnavigation. I discovered these novels shortly after O’Brian passed away in 2000 and have been reading them almost continually ever since.
In this tenth volume, The Far Side of the World, O’Brian found his stride. The nine previous books created such a rich tapestry of backstories for the beloved characters that here they simply shine in their strengths and lovable weaknesses. There are storms, crew troubles, and miraculous rescues, all aboard the dear old Surprise, a ship that features prominently in most of the series.
While I’ll read almost anything about ships and sailing and the sea, what draws me back to these books again and again is the special friendship between the characters, particularly Captain Jack Aubrey and his Ship’s Surgeon Stephen Maturin. I wrote this tribute a few years ago that still holds up:
They quarrel like brothers, and over the course of twenty volumes, have their share of falling out, but always find a way to strengthen their friendship and be stronger together, and with most all of their adventures, success is only achieved when they pull together. It may very well be this enduring friendship that I love so much about these books. Everyone must yearn for such a perfect friend in their life if only to find it in the pages of a novel.
I own these books in a lovely Folio Society set, but I prefer the Kindle / Audible combination for the most immersive reading. Amazon’s Whispersync service makes it seamless to go from my Kindle to the late Patrick Tull’s wondrous narration in the car or on a walk. One of my circumnavigations took place exclusively with Mr. Tull during my daily commute many years ago. It’s Tull’s voice I hear in my head as I read. And it’s his voice I imitate whenever I need a particularly harsh epithet when some fix-it project isn’t going well:
Jump to it, you idle lubber. Quick’s the word and sharp’s the action, damn your eyes.
If you haven’t discovered these wonderful novels yet, jump to it, you idle lubber. There’s not a moment to lose.
Highlights
He left the Pollux with an easy mind, or at least with a mind as easy as was right in one who had spent most of his life on the sea, that dangerous, utterly unreliable element, with nothing but a plank between him and eternity.
The Odyssey is a fine tale, sure, though I never could cordially like Ulysses: he lied excessively, it seems to me; and if a man lies beyond a certain point a sad falseness enters into him and he is no longer amiable.’
The two ships filled their backed topsails and drew apart, calling out civilities. The Spaniard’s last audible words, over half a mile of sea, were ‘Que no haya novedad.’ ‘What did he mean by that?’ asked Captain Aubrey. ‘May no new thing arise,’ said Stephen. ‘New things being of their nature bad.’
‘Have you ever brought a determined suicide back to life? Have you seen the despair on his face when he realizes that he has failed – that it is all to do again? It seems to me a strange thing to decide for another. Surely living or dying is a matter between a man and his Maker or Unmaker.’
There was not a moment to spare, it was true; but then not every moment had to be flogged.